Hurricane Florence destroyed homes, schools and child care centers in parts of North Carolina when it battered the coast of the Carolinas. Save the Children was there, thanks to the generous support of our donors, working to change the lives of vulnerable children.

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Hurricane Florence

Save the Children’s emergency responders were on the ground – even before Hurricane Florence hit, thanks to supporters like you. During the storm, an estimated 8.04 trillion gallons of rain poured down across parts of North Carolina [i], flooding roads and filling homes with record-breaking amounts of water. Families and children were forced from their homes and the lives they once knew.

“Loss and displacement during disasters can affect children for years to come,” said Sarah Thompson, Save the Children’s director for U.S. emergencies. “It can be a very scary and stressful situation for kids,” Thompson added. “Their homes might be destroyed, they might not know when they'll get back to school, and they might not know where their friends are.”

By supporting Save the Children, your donations will help protect vulnerable children and provide desperately needed relief to families.

Facts, Figures and What You Need to Know About Hurricane Florence

Who was affected by the storm?

More than 1 million people in coastal areas of Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina were ordered to evacuate their homes before Hurricane Florence made landfall on September 14, 2018.

Due to the size and slow-moving pace of the storm, flash flood and tornado warnings remained in effect for nearly a week in many counties in both North and South Carolina.

Many child care providers faced huge challenges in reopening and providing essential services to children and working families. Over 6,600 childcare providers in North Carolina were believed to be in Florence’s path.

How can I help hurricane survivors?

Nobody knows when the next emergency will strike, be it an earthquake, flood or hurricane. But we know children suffer most when they do. That's why Save the Children's caring professionals are prepared to help vulnerable girls and boys during disasters and their aftermath.

A donation to Save the Children’s Emergency Fund will help support the urgent needs of children and families. Please donate now.

How has Save the Children responded to Hurricane Florence?

Through the generous support of our donors, Save the Children’s recovery efforts in North Carolina focused on southeastern and coastal communities that were hardest hit, including Craven (New Bern), Cumberland (Fayetteville), New Hanover (Wilmington), Onslow (Jacksonville) and Robeson (Lumberton).

Our teams worked with early education and child care provider networks to offer our proven response and recovery programs and expertise. We also helped with assessments of child care providers and their post-hurricane needs and provided recovery support to restore children’s access to early education

Here are highlights of our work to date, which has benefited more than 10,000 children and families:

Save the Children’s emergency response team supported the needs of children and families in 5 different shelters in North Carolina who were evacuated from the path of Florence. Our team worked in partnership with local and county entities to assess children’s needs in shelters (making sure children are safe), distribute child-friendly supplies (like cribs, diapers and strollers) and establish Child Friendly Spaces to give kids a chance to play, relax and be kids and to give parents a brief respite from the stress and strain of being displaced.

We also worked with the Brigade Boys and Girls Club of Wilmington so that out-of-school children received two meals every day.

Thanks to you, we provided infant and family hygiene kits to families in shelters in and around Raleigh-Durham, including at a large shelter on the campus of the University of North Carolina. We also provided cribs to families with very young children.

Shipments of diapers, baby wipes, strollers, cribs and other supplies have been widely distributed.

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